January and the seed catalogs are arriving.

Ever consider growing all your seeds? Well, at least some of them? Here in Southwest Montana we grow about 75% of the seeds we use. Each year they seem to be better and better, adapting to our harsh, high altitude climate. Many times I grow the plants I need seed for indoors, or bring them in to finish as my outside season is not nearly long enough to accommodate them. Broccoli, chard, beets, carrots, celery, beans, peas, onions, corn, quinoa, wheat, rye, barley, oats, mangles, cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, strawberries, boysenberries, raspberries, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, New Zealand spinach, spinach, and more, we grow the seed for it. You can produce lots of seeds in pots in the house during the winter. Like lettuce, You can plant a few plants and harvest leaves from the plants until they bolt and go to seed. You can grow seeds, save money and share them with your friends. You will have more than you need, and with something like broccoli you can grow enough to have sprouts all year long. It’s great fun for kids and grand kids too. Plant diversity has become something of a hot topic and we can all have a part in preserving our farming heritage, saving the seeds of our favorite varieties. This is my favorite seed saving book: Seed To Seed Buy it here:

“As 2015 has been declared the Year of Soils, let us recognize that in the seed and the soil we can find answers to every one of the crisis we are facing.”